This WILL be a better week.

If I think a had a bad week, my sister last week, in Springfield IL, lost her best friend for 18 years in a house fire, another good friend 2 days before, and her son was in a stabbing a month ago. He's got brain damage from the fall after the knife went in his neck.
Tom's 2nd Generation Venture is in the front yard. Could be out tomorrow.
I washed and waxed 5 of our 6 vehicles. Yes I'm somewhat bored, but it better than the alternative, WORK!
I want to go riding tomorrow cause it's suppose to be windy this week.
I'm out of projects and have stopped spending on Ebay. The house and car insurance is due this month.
I've found a boring time is good because there are not any problems.
My friends have been very supportive considering the crap I went thru last week.
Pic is a magnetic galaxy, far far, away...
You have a good week too.

What a week!

3-4 weeks ago I invited a fellow Venture Rider.org member if he is in the area to drop by. It turned into a stay over night. I road out to the east 30 miles and found them. Now 2 brothers, one was out of gas 3 miles from the nearest gas station near El Paso. I should have guessed then it would be down hill from there. His brother and he had separated in Carlsbad NM. They don't get along real well. Anyways they get to my house and Tom has a bald tire on his Venture. We party! They stay.
Monday we spent all morning calling around for a tire, nothing near here. Finally get one next day air from Sacramento, CA. They stay. $260!
Tue we search for the UPS driver find him but he's on lunch for an hour. Finally get the tire installed by 2:30 and get on the road. We ride 60 miles to the east and Tom get's a bad blow out on the installed tire. He swerves twice and avoids a telephone post and sign post only 8 feet apart. He goes into a 5 ft soft dirt ditch.
Brother Kent is in such a rush to install the tire forgets to install parts. I have to remind him. He beats on tire and uses way too much air pressure. I can only observe and remind angry brother.
Just before the bike stops there is a 1" guy wire angling down off the electric pole. Tom jumps off at the last second avoiding bad injuries. Tom hurts ribs. Hands are scratched in in 4-5 places. The bike is totaled. We use a 5' pry bar to get the split guy wire loose from the bike. 3 hours later the bike is on a tow truck but the local County Mountie, 2 border patrols, state police and EMS show up even though we ask 911 for a tow truck only.
Home at 7:30 very tired, dehydrated and upset. They stay.
Wed. we wait most of the morning for Tom's Georgia and local insurance people to inspect bike.
Totaled but still don't know how much. Wed afternoon we locate a new Venture for Tom. In Santa Terasa NM 35 miles away for a very good price of 15.3k on a 19k bike. They go to Motel.
Thur we go to dealer. Tom and Kent find 2 minor scratches on the bike. Dealer who's been beat down on price so bad won't replace to scratched parts. Deal falls thru. Brothers pissed at dealer? Not reasonable or logical. Chuck tries to keep his cool.
We go to Yamaha dealer 10 miles from house, no Ventures but they have a Gold Wing for 3-5k more. Then go to Kawasaki dealer they have nothing they like. Chuck starting to loose cool.
Buy the way we find 2 tires in stock that would fit the bike now destroyed, and we had called them!
We go back to near Yamaha dealer, Tom buys and pays extra for a bike he really does not like. Needs a trailer hitch and CB. Have to overnight parts. Maybe here Friday? Bike maybe ready Sat? Probably will be Monday/Tuesday.
Now it will be a week, could be more. Chuck's lost all cool says goodbye without much feeling after being told off several times. I get 3 free lunches and and 2 dinners after a week of helping.
And a Award from VentureRider.org. for helping. Not worth the BS!
Totaled bike and trailer in front yard for how long?
Another lesson learned. OR
No good deed goes unpunished.

Repetition

There is 4 of us in our motorcycle group who have several bikes/things alike.
3 of the 4 have Suzuki GSX1100G's. My favorite.
2 of the 4 Suzuki's are black, a very nice metal flake. See picture.
4 of the 4 have Yamaha Ventures.
Although I have a 1200, the other 3 are 1300's.
1 is an 84, 1 is a 86, 2 are 88's, 2 are Venture Royales with CB's, Auto leveling systems, radio/cassette systems
2 of the 4 have Honda VTX1800's. A very large cruiser. "I do mean large"
1 guy has 7 bikes. I have 5, 1 has 3 and the 4th only has 2 bikes.
All have more than 1.
2 of the 4 work, although the 3rd wants to go back??Why??
I hope I never have too.
All are wise with their money.
All 4 are/were managers/administrators.
We have 1 car, 1 has 2 cars, 2 have 3 cars.
All are safe drivers.
2 were born here, locals, 2 are transplants... All get along well.
Confused? Me too.

Trips, Vacations

Not only do we do many day trips around El Paso but we have others planned this year.
I go to my brothers in April, Linda is going to the Rockies.
In Sept we want to go to east Texas on the Venture for 2 weeks
Linda's going to Israel in early Nov. Too far for me.
Then we all go to the Mexican Rivera the last part of Nov. on a cruise.
I'm trying to get a few guys together to go to Colorado on the bikes.
A new friend wants to do an evening ride "MOONING" (full moon brightness).
Could also go to the Davis Mtn's to McDonald Observatory.
Another one wants to go to Belmorea to the big pool.
Me, I won't take my sport bike threw a jungle river, but I will do other dumb things like....forget it... you don't want to know.

I keep trying to

To get rid of all the bugs on my Venture. Got an oil leak on the left rear side of the engine. Making a mess with oil all over the lower parts and muffler. I can smell it when I stop. I'm getting tired of the mess so today I reordered all the seals (3) in that area. Another $40.
When I had the engine running and rear wheel turning to see it I could see the leak, I noticed the rear tire wobbling. On closer inspection it was a large bubble or bludge in the tire. That is dangerous! That tire had several thousand miles left in it. It was old, 1997.
I have a rear spare tire, but it is the same kind Lowell had on his Venture. It made his wander especially at high speeds. If it does the same on mine I will junk it.
The bike is 25 years old, so all the seals and rubber are going bad, even though it has only 21,500 miles. It wasn't driven for 4 years, sat in Phoenix in the hot and in Minnesota in the cold. Bought it with just 14283 miles. Maybe before we go on our East Texas trip I will have all the bugs out and have enough spare parts (Over $500, so far) to fix most anything.
I'll just keep trying. And so what? It's a lot cheaper than a new one and keeps me busy.
BUT it's in a lot better shape than in the pictures.